Victoria Station & Great Central Railway


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Here's a video wot my brother found on You Tube. It covers Great Central form London Marylebone to Nottm Victoria and beyond.... up to Hucknall, Annesley etc.

Most of the local excitement comes in the last 3rd of the film. Shots of Boowul Common are especially nostalgic to me.  Can even see the 'old' 'new' Golden Ball pub.  I saw it built during my early adolescence.. I replaced the old, old Golden Ball in Boowul Town Centre.

All gone.

 

 

 

 

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The city centre when Victoria was still operating - the mass of buildings on the right.  

.....and a few more. Who can forget the stairs leading down to Great Central island platforms?!     The Signalbox                

Obviously in its last days, just before the line closed completely. I did a fast-forward to 20.45 where the Nottingham bit starts, when it goes through the Meadows and Arkwright Street station on the viaducts.  When it's in Victoria Station you can see buildings on Glasshouse Street which are still there today, and further on, all the Basford/Bulwell/Hucknall stations are semi-derelict.

 

Makes me feel old when I realise that I was in junior school when that film was taken.

 

 

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It looks like a bomb has hit it! Compare and contrast with German Railways where plenty of bombs did avctually hit. Modern diesels and electrics in the 1950s while BR was still chugging along with  its museum-piece steamers. Emblematic of how Britain wasted the peacetime dividend - which we are still paying for.

 

 

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23 hours ago, DJ360 said:

Here's a video wot my brother found on You Tube.

Great video DJ

Some of the locos and rolling stock looked decidedly shabby and in need of a good clean and wash down. What was refreshing was the absence of graffiti on every bridge, wall and building.

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10 hours ago, notty ash said:

steam lasted until the 1970s in Germany, years after the last steam locos were withdrawn from BR

 

(Vale of Rheidol narrow gauge line excepted of course)

 

 

 

 

Generally speaking, British Steam Locomotives were far more attractive than those from other countries because their designers did not clutter their lines with external pipes/devices/bits and pieces. The German Loco above may well have been highly efficient.. but it was a visual mess. British designers managed to produce locomotives which were mostly both efficient, AND attractive.

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They looked bigger and heavier than BR . It may have been camera angle but some the curves looked impossibly tight...

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  • 3 months later...

I need info on Nottingham Victoria Station. 

 

Was there a passenger entrance into the station from Lower Parliament Street or was all passenger entrance from Milton Street?

 

Was Lower Parliament Street a 'bridge' with Thurland Street being the tunnel out southbound?

 

When in the station how did you get from one platform to the next? Was it by bridge or was there a subway?

 

Here is a map of the station: If you click on the link and then go to No 9 on the left hand side of the page all will be revealed. You can enlarge it and move it around.  https://www.railwayarchive.org.uk/track-plans

 

Unfortunately, although I am well aware that I have been in Nottingham Victoria when it was operating, the only memory I have of it was being on  the footbridge across to Glasshouse Street probably on Saturday shopping trips into Central market.

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There was  an entrance from Parliament Street and the only I ever knew of crossing tracks  by bridge. A favourite occupation when young was to stand on the bridges as a train went under, the smell, the sight and the sound was magic.

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Yes entrance down from Lower Parliament st

Yes  it was open on the Thurland St side but may have been tunnelled or cut and fill, as it was along Thurland St, under Lower Parliament st

They'd dug down deep enough as it was, I doubt they could have been persuaded to dig any deeper for subways

 

lYC3PF2.png

 

That's Lower Parliament St in the background according to the link below

 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ntgm009886/posterid/ntgm009886.html

 

First time I've seen this one, but that's what's left of Parliament St on the left, Victoria Stn to the right, so they dug out and built a bridge over, the other side of the picture above.

 

acTcWUf.png

 

Parliament St entrance

oEZwOrn.png

 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ntgm001411/posterid/ntgm001411.html

 

QAv00Mo.png

 

 

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13 hours ago, The Pianoman said:

I need info on Nottingham Victoria Station. 

 

If you aren't already aware of it, take a look at this FB page. The work they are doing is spectacular, and if you look through all their photos (100s) you will almost certainly find answers to all your questions - and more.

 

https://www.facebook.com/NottsVic3D/

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  • 2 months later...

An interesting collection of photos in the NEP showing the line around Victoria Station - going north and south - after it had all closed but before it was demolished.

 

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/gallery/amazing-pictures-old-central-railway-5455057?fbclid=IwAR306uvEoeTzpcHteJle82-_eoC_A_YXMHeCfT720cElMRnKfBvSZLK9R8o

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I have to wonder why they installed windows when they bricked up the tunnels, no door, just a window...

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

My uncles dad was the station master at Vic. Station in the 50s and 60s he always put us on the right train when we went on holiday, Blackpool,Filey Mablethorpe etc they were great times the smell of the steam and oil, not forgetting the train spotting.

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  • 11 months later...

 

 

I had a meeting today with Victoria Centre maintenance manager (about imminent remedial work on the Emett Clock).  While chatting he told me that a quantity of very old documents had been found in a basement room (he thought the room could be part of the old station - maybe that places it below the clock tower?)  The room was dark, cool and dry so the documents were in reasonable condition.  They took them to an office to peruse.  He said some dated back well before the station was built and include leases and purchases of the land and buildings, many with wax seals.  There were some references to the Emett clock so it sounds like it spans a wide period of time.  He said they contacted local museums (I asked if it would it have been the County Archives - he was not sure) who were understandably keen to get their hands on this 'find'.  The experts said to put it all back in the basement store room until they can get there (which will be soon).  They say it will take some time and effort to catalogue as there is so much material.  The manager said it might get spread around four locations - maybe that means archives, libraries, universities, etc.

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I've alerted Jannine Tanner, who runs F-B Nottm Railways Remembered and is active with Nottingham history, particularly Long Stairs.

She was already aware of some documents but had been unable to contact anyone with any detailed info about their future, she's on the case.

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I recall walking the Thurland Street tunnel in a group around 2017, organised by Janine Tanner.  The walks got stopped due to safety concerns - hard to get 'the powers that be' to take responsibility, even though risk is minimal and manageable (in my view).  Not much to see down there - tracks are gone but there was still a layer of soot underfoot.  Made a bit of a mess as we filed out back into the Vic Centre car park!

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Apparently the Vic Centre staff have known for a few years that there was a pile of documents but didn't think to have a closer look until recently.  It could so easily have been classed as 'quantity of waste paper causing fire hazard' and dumped or recycled.  Luckily someone realised it was of historical value.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Victoria Station & Great Central Railway

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